What is clear with the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team is that its most successful formula involves controlling the game’s tempo – but that only works if there is some production to go along with those possessions.
That was the problem for the state Class A no. 7-ranked Bees in last Tuesday’s game at West Genesee, where the Wildcats, once it got out in front, never let B’ville back into the game, pulling away late behind Mackenzie Baker to prevail by a 9-2 margin.
The week before, WG had lost to Garden City and Cicero-North Syracuse, and those defeats pushed the Wildcats down to no. 17 in the state Class A poll, a full 10 spots behind B’ville, who had won five in a row following a 1-2 start.
Yet all of those bad results gave WG some resolve, and it began to show that against B’ville, only allowing goals from Peyton Fleming and Monica Lannier as Julia Pelcher added an assist. And they both came before halftime.
Once in the second half, the Wildcats blanked B’ville, and Baker, in particular, burned the Bees’ otherwise solid defense. All told, Baker scored seven goals, with Eliza MacCaull the only other WG player to score. Goalie Claudia Mocciaro earned seven saves.
And there was no chance for B’ville to rest and recover since, two nights later, it had to visit Bragman Stadium and face state Class A no. 8-ranked C-NS, who had just suffered its fist loss of the season to Fayetteville-Manlius and was not in a good mood.
The Northstars beat the Bees 14-7 in a contest where B’ville improved on the offensive end, but not enough to keep up. Other than Fleming and Sara Goodwin, who had three goals apiece, only Katie Pascale earned a goal as Hannah Johnson tacked on an assist.
Steadily, C-NS got away, led in large part by Brenna Duffy, who piled up six assists to go with her pair of goals, her passes often going to Jessica Meneilly, who had five goals and one assist, or Megan Tryniski, who scored three times.
With that loss, B’ville fell to 6-4, and it would look to turn around Tuesday at Liverpool before a Thursday-night trip to Fayetteville-Manlius, whom it beat 9-7 at home back on April 18.
